Today 2/11 is Crossover and the last day for each house to act on its own legislation, excluding the budget bills. Essentially, the legislative process begins all over again. House bills which were approved will be moving to the Senate and likewise Senate bills will move over to the House.
Three of our four legislative agenda items are still in play:
Item #1 – Funding for State Share of Authorized Positions
Item #2 – 3% Salary Increase for State and State Supported Local Employees
Item #4 – Parity with State Employees on Retiree Health Care Credit
Virginia Retirement System; health insurance credits for retired state employees.
(Ruff) This bill grants retired constitutional officers and their employees parity with state employees on the health care credit. The governor did not provide funding for this initiative and there is no budget amendment. However, this measure is on it way to becoming law. If it passes, we will surely seek funding for it next year. The bill passed out of the Senate of a vote of 40 – 0.
We will focus on the passage of all of the above initiatives again this week.
This past week the following actions was taken on bill we a have been monitoring:
Collective Bargaining
HB582 – Collective bargaining for public employees; definitions, labor organization representation. (Guzman) An amendment excluding constitutional officer employees from the provisions of this bill passed. This was a combined effort with many of you reaching out to your House legislators as well as efforts of our constitutional officer colleagues. There was significant debate within the House Democratic caucus. The patron and the pro-Union lobby fought hard for our employees to be included in this bill (perhaps a harbinger of things to come?). However, freshman Delegate, Martha Mugler would not yield on the issue to either the patron or the Union lobby. She and others were a driving force and behind the passage of the amendment. In addition, Alan Albert (Treasurer’s Assoc.), crafted the amendments on our behalf. The amendment passed on a voice with little audible opposition. The bill passed on a partisan vote 54 to 45.
SB1022 – Collective bargaining for public employees; labor organization representation. (Boysko) This bill was incorporated into SB939 (below).
SB939 – SB 939 Counties, cities, and towns; labor and employment, collective bargaining. (Saslaw) This bill is similar to HB582 (above). The bill passed the Senate on a partisan vote 11 to 5.
SB131 – Form of ballot; party identification of certain candidates, constitutional offices. (Chase) This bill failed to report in Senate Privileges & Elections and has been disposed of.
Peer-to-Peer
SB735, SB749, SB750 and HB1539). Various bills regarding Peer-to-Peer vehicle sharing platforms are advancing. These bills establish requirements (i.e. insurance, taxation, recordkeeping, disclosure, and safety recall, etc.) for peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms. There is strong support for the bills. The competing Senate bills SB749 & SB750 have been incorporated into SB735. HB1539 is sole remaining house bill.
Last week, Ross Mugler met with a group of stakeholders (i.e. VML, auto rental companies, and peer-to-peer lobbyist). The bills, subject to zoning requirements, will permit businesses and individuals to offer to lease up to ten cars on a peer-to-peer platform app paying a reduced daily rental of 6.5% (2.5% to localities and 4% to the state). Within three years the local portion increases to 3%.
Our only interest in the bill was discovery. As with AirBnb, this request fell on deaf ears. While discovery for the smaller users will be an issue, those that own multiple cars for lease will likely reveal themselves when seeking the local exemption from personal property taxation.
Veterans Relief
SB143 – Disabled veterans and surviving spouses; state subsidy of property tax exemptions.
SB446 – Constitutional amendment; personal property tax exemption for motor vehicle of a disabled veteran. (Reeves)
SJ58 – Constitutional amendment; personal property tax exemption for motor vehicle of a disabled veteran.(Morrissey)
The above three bills were among four dozen that were continued until 2021.